Road guard



Aug. 10, 1943. A. E. McNABB 2,326,547

ROAD GUARD Filed Nov. 1940 IN VENT OR.

w/mssm. BY B m 3 ATTORNEXS.

' of'the wires of a wire-band wedge to clamp the ends of Patented Aug. 10, 1943 Pittsburgh Steel flompa ny, Pittsburgh; a,. a I

corporation"of' Pennsylvania V a pucationuwember 'z, IMOQQSeriaLNm 364,655

lCliziins. (c1. zse-q sznr' This invention relates tohighway road guards and more-particularly to: anrimprovedi construe;- tionof wire-band road: guards.

Inwire-band road guards, bandspfispaced; par allel wires-are connected. to; anchnrs .wliicln'in turn, are anchored. to or: supported; by posts by means of: anchor: rods. It; has not been uncom-- mon to connect. the-bands to anchors by'proridi ing the latter with openings. to receivethe ends-v by intermediate of the-wires which areztheniclarnpedainathaepein l0 ings by wedges In some. cases'the ends of four or. more of theparallel wires which-form a band: are placed in a single conical openingi' and? clamped; by a. conicalawedge; .When this is-done the. ends cf some of the-wires are necessarily bent out of parallelisrnwith'iand accordingly are longer than: the others, with the result-that when: thewire-band issubj'e'cted to high: tension, as when struckby an automobile, the wires whose ends and the other wires are liable to break becausethey are proportionatelyoverstressei' Alsogdhe to; normal variations in the diameters of wires; which are intended tobeof the same gage; and

arethus bent donot take their'shareofthe load? tothe normal manufacturing irregularitiesleff anchors and wedges, it notinfre'quently happens that all of fouror' more wires thatare engaged bya single wedge are not clamped lilee fi'rrn' ness. The consequent relativeloesenessofsorne of the wire results in-the same'unequal stressing to high tension, regardless of whether the-wires of a band areparalletto' each other from anchor to anchor.

Objects of my invention are to provide a wire- 3.3.

band road guard in which all of the wires of a band remain parallel from anchor to anchor, and i in which the ends of all the wires are firmly and uniformly clamped to anchors, and to provide when itis subjected I or the normal" menu-namin a road guard anchor which is strong and durable 40 and to which the ends of wire-bands may be easily attached. r V Generally, the objects of the invention areaccomplished by providing an anchor plate with a plurality of openings so receive the ends of a pair of adjacent wires in their parallel arrangement, and providing a each pair of wires in each opening.

positioned that each will The; endsf of a. band; la of plurality of wire-receiving openings plate, as seen in Fig. 2-.

The: invention will; be: further explained; and

better understood by reference. to the drawing.

spaced; parallelrwi'resare connected: to anchor plate v Zrwhich, in turn, are eitherrattache'd. to: end posts. 3 or are. supported? L iszprovided' at; one end with a boss 5 having a 6; the side walls of which converge towards the wire receiv inged'ge oi the plate. Each of these openings is adapted to receivethe ends of spaced parallelwires'of band i.

important; feature of this invention lies in: the. spacing. of openings ii and; in the manner in which the ends of; the wires are clamped 'in the openings; These openings a reso spaced as to receive: the wires in their parallelposition; due; to which the wires are of anchor to ancho'r; A wedge] it is provided for each: opening, the opposite es of which Wedgeengage" onlya-pai'r of the wires and clamp that pairin the opening wedge" is'so'driven into'an'opening that the op Wire's extending through less of the normal variations in the diameters" of wires which' are intended 'to he of the same gage; irregularities, or anchors and wedges. There are nojlooselyengaged wires, and consequently no-unequal stressing of them due to slippage in' the openings when a loadis applied to the band. Thus the spacing of'o'penings 6 and the engagement of only two wires between a wedge 1 and the walls of an opening produce an anchor "which firmly and uniformly clamps the ends of'all the wires of a wire band. a I r The tendency of the wires to pull through the openings and thus break their connections to the plate may be further resisted by bending the ends of the wires projecting Although, except for the described convergence,"

My invention is illustrated in the. accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 shows in elevation a portion of a wire-band road guard embodying the invention; Fig 2 a plan of one of the anchor plates illustrated in Fig. 1 with a section cut away to show the engagement of the ends of band the openings 6 maybe formed according to. choice, I prefer to make them grooves 8 to receive the Wires. The other end of plate 2 is provided with lugs posts "'4' by' suitable rods; Plate;

a pair of adjacent uniform lengthv from provided for them. When ali through and beyond the flat instead Of round. The wedges I conform to the shape of the openings except that,'as shown in Fig. 2, the .wedges may contain 9 having eyes I through which extend anchor rods, both ends of which are threaded; Nuts ll engage one end of the anchor rods and securely connect the plate 2 to the rods. The anchor rods either pass through posts 3 and are secured against longitudinal movement to the left (Fig. 1) by heads l2 or extend through intermediate posts 4 and engage a succeeding anchor plate 20, as shown in Fig. 1, in the manner described above for securing the anchor 'rods to anchor plates. The number of anchor rods used depends on the width of the wire band. The purpose of using more than one anchor rod for a single plate F is to maintain the wire band in a vertical plane. As strengthening elements, anchor plate 2 is provided with ribs i3 which extend longitudi nally from the lugs 9 to the bosses 5. The'ribs lie in interspaced relation with the converging openings 6 to permit the bending of the projecting ends of the wires around the wedge. Also, to additionally strengthen the anchor plate, the axes of wire receiving openings 6 andanchor bolt eyes l0 lie in a common plane.

According to the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained the principle and construci tion of my invention; and have illustrated and described what I now consider to represent its best embodiment. However, I desire to have'it understood that, within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practicedotherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.

I claim: a Y

1. In a road guard, the combination of a band comprising a plurality of spaced parallel wires, an anchor comprising a plate provided atone end with'a boss having a plurality of wire-receiving openings the side walls of each of which converge towards the edge of said plate, the ends of a pair of adjacent wires of said band being positioned in each of said "openings in contact with the opposite sides thereof, a wedge binding said wires in each opening, said openings being spaced and-formed to receive said wires in their parallel position, the opposite end of said plate provided with lugs having eyes to receive anchor rods, and a plurality of strengthening ribs on said plate extending longitudinally thereof from said lugs.

to said boss and lying in interspaced'relation with 1e openings of said boss.

2. Ina road guard, the combination of a band comprising a plurality of spaced ,parallel wires,

an anchor comprising .a plate provided at one end with a boss having a plurality of wire-receiving openings the side walls of each of which converge towards the edge of said plate, the ends of a pair of adjacent wires of said band being positioned in each of said openings in contact with the opposite sides thereof, a wedge binding said wires in each opening, said openings being spaced and formed to receive said wires in their parallel position, the opposite end of said plate being provided with lugs having eyes to receive anchor rods, the axes of said eyes lying in a common plane with the axes of the openings of the boss, and a plurality of strengthening ribs on said plate extending longitudinally thereof from said lugs to said boss and lying in interspaced relation with the openings of said boss.

3. In a road guard, the combination of a fiat band comprisinga plurality of laterally spaced parallel wires, an anchor comprising a plate provided at one end with a boss having a plurality of wire-receiving openingslying in the plane of said band the side walls of each of which openings converge towards the edge of said plate, the ends ofv a pair of adjacent wires of said band being positioned in eachof said openings in contact with the ppcsite sides thereof, and a wedge clamping said wires in each opening, said openingsbeing spaced and formed to receive said wires in their parallel position, the connection of said band to said anchor being characterized in service'by uniformity of tension in all of the wires of the band and by uniformity of clamping engagement of the ends thereof. o

4. In a road guard, the combination of a flat band comprising a plurality of. laterally spaced parallel Wires, an anchor comprising a plate provided at one end with a boss having a plurality of wire-receiving openings lying in the plane of said bandthe side walls of each of which open-- ings converge towards the edge of said plate, the

ceive anchor rods, the connection of said band to said anchor being characterized in service by uni formityof tension in all of the wires of the band and by uniformity of clamping engagement of the ends thereof.

.. V ARTHUR E. McNABB. 

